The invention relates to an energy management apparatus and an energy management system, which performs energy-saving control.
Conventionally, in order to decrease the consumed power (energy consumption) of controlled devices such as heaters, air conditioners, and lighting devices in individual houses in collective housing, single-family houses, offices, or the like, there has been a system which performs an energy-saving control (hereinafter, referred to “second control (mode)”) that consumes less power than a predetermined output control (hereinafter, referred to “first control (mode)”) (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publications Nos. 2011-058753, 2009-115359, and 9-217953). In other words, the first control is a control for controlling each controlled device with predetermined power (for example, rated power) that is larger than the power consumed by the second control.
Various types of second controls have been performed heretofore. In this regard, it is necessary to notify users of an energy-saving effect by the second control in order to encourage the users to take energy-saving actions by emphasizing the merit of the second control. Generally, both data of energy used (energy consumed) under the second control and data of energy consumed under the first control are needed to figure out the effect of the second control.
However, actually, when the second control is performed, energy consumption under the second control can be measured, whereas energy consumption under a non-energy-saving control, i.e., the first control cannot be measured. On the other hand, when the first control is performed, energy consumption under the first control can be measured whereas energy consumption under the energy-saving control, i.e., the second control cannot be measured.
In short, there is a problem that when only one of the first control and the second control is performed, the energy-saving effect by the second control cannot be figured out.
The invention has been made in view of the abovementioned circumstances, and an object of an embodiment of the invention is to provide an energy management apparatus and an energy management system which can figure out an energy-saving effect by an energy-saving control, even when only one of the energy-saving control and a control consuming more energy is performed.